Tag Archives: Avengers

10 years and 18 films later, it has all been leading to this. “Avengers: Infinity War” follows our mighty heroes and almost all of those we’ve been introduced to over the last decade as they face their strongest and most fierce test yet, Thanos (Josh Brolin); as he looks to restore balance to the Universe. During the course of the MCU timeline, Thanos has been piecing together his agenda, the Infinity Gauntlet that houses all 6 of the Infinity stones (Space, Reality, Power, Mind, Time, and Soul stones), one-by-one. As the film begins, we Continue reading

It has been years since the Thor (Chris Hemsworth) defeated Malekith and the Aether, he and Jane have split up and Thor has search the realms for infinity crystals only to have himself captured in hell by Surtur so he can find out what the demon is up to. Surtur explains to the Thunder God, that Ragnarok is at hand and he will tower over Asgard while it burns.

Ragnarok:is the prophecy that foretold the destruction of Asgard.

Upon learning the plans Thor breaks his chains and summons his hammer, Mjolnir. Thor returns to Asgard, thinking he has prevented “Ragnarok”, to find Loki (Tom Hiddleston) still impersonating Odin (Anthony Hopkins). Thor calls out his brother and makes him take him to Earth to see where he stashed Odin. The nursing home is being demolished and Thor and Loki are collected by Dr. Strange who safeguards Earth against evil and Loki is the poster child for evil. Strange moved Odin to Norway, where Thor and Loki spent his final moments with their father. Odin explained that they had an older sister Hela (Cate Blanchett) that he banished when her lust for power drew too great. Now with him gone there is nothing to prevent her from returning to Asgard and taking over all the realms.

The Peter Quill aka Starlord and his rag tag family of criminals are back to save the galaxy from some new bad guys in “Guardians of the Galaxy 2”.

Director James Gunn has re-assembled his cast from Marvel’s smash hit Guardians of the Galaxy and joining Chris Pratt, Dave Battista, Zoe Saldana, Michael Rooker are Pom Klementief, Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell! Vin Diesel and Bradley Cooper also return as the voices of Groot and Rocket.

The sequel opens with “Brandy” by Looking Glass playing the car stereo as a teenage Meredith Quill (Laura Haddock) and her spaceman boyfriend Ego (Kurt Russell) cruise down the highway in Missouri. Ego shows Meredith a plant he is planting on worlds throughout the galaxy and then professes his love for her.

Then the film jumps back to the future to find the Guardians of the Galaxy on a planet inhabited by the Sovereign who hired them to protect their batteries. This power source brings a lot of units on the open market. The Guardians are there to protect from a space slug like alien. The battle serves as a back drop to a fabulous dance number by “baby” Groot to “Mr. Blue Sky” by ELO. Gamora (Saldana) slices the alien open and frees Draxx who dove into the alien’s mouth thinking the beast’s skin is thinner from the inside.

The Guardians are paid with the Sovereign’s hostage, Nebula (Karen Gillian) who had tried to steal the batteries herself. Nebula still wants to best Gamora and eventually kill her. The team takes off only to be chased down by a fleet of remote ships piloted by the sovereign. Quill asks “Why are they after us?” only to find out Rocket stole some of the batteries!

The Guardians Ship sustains a lot of damage, but before they can finish it an egg shaped ship appears and destroys the Sovereign fleet. Quill crashes their damaged ship onto the closest planet. The Mystery man follows them and introduces himself as Ego, Peter’s dad! Ego is accompanied by his assistant Mantis (Pom Klementeif), an empath that Ego employs to help him rest. Ego brings Quill, Gamora and Drax to his planet (yes he has a planet) and explains to Peter that he is a celestial or immortal to most in the galaxy. Rocket, Groot and Nebula stayed behind to repair the ship. Quill happy to finally meet his father, but thinks something is wrong with Ego.

The Guardians aren’t the only ones with turmoil. Yondu (Michael Rooker) and the Ravagers are on a pleasure planet shacking up with escort robots when the leader of the Ravagers Stakar Ogord (Sylvester Stallone) shows up and disses them. Yondu and his crew had been banished when Stakar when he found out they were dealing kids. The Sovereign show up to hire Yondu and his crew to find and kill the Guardians. The Ravagers show up only to be beat down by a crafty Rocket. Yondu gets the drop on the raccoon with his mental arrow, only to have his crew mutiny when he decides to let the guardians go.

After Groot helps Rocket and Yondu escape, they take off to save Quill. They have to save Peter from his father?

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is just as much fun as the first film and features an even better soundtrack with tunes by George Harrison, Cat Stevens, Fleetwood Mac and Cheap Trick! The original crew gave a great performance but Stallone’s ravager leader Stakar is great surprise in the film. I was also impressed by Mantis and her hilarious interaction with Drax. Baby Groot steals the show! Guardians 2 answers a lot of the questions about Quill’s dad, Yondu and Nebula. Also when you go see it keep an eye out for Stan Lee’s cameo that will explain all the other cameos he has had in the MCU. Howard the Duck appears and sit tight there are numerous post credit scenes!

As a comic book fan and a film critic, I love that the Marvel Cinematic Universe knows how to cross promote their films and TV shows while introducing characters in cameos prior to their solo films. We met Nick Fury all the way back in Iron Man (2008), Agent Peggy Carter was introduced with Captain America and now we get a look at two new heroes in the new film Captain America: Civil War.

Civil War picks up where Age of Ultron left off with Captain America (Chris Evans) and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson)leading the new group of Avengers: Falcon (Anthony Mackie) & Scarlett Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) tracking down Crossbones (Frank Grillo) to prevent HYDRA from obtaining a biological weapon. The fight takes place in the streets of South Africa and there are numerous casualties including a group of students from Wakanda as Cap and his crew defeat Crossbones securing the chemical.

The governments of the world are demanding accountability by the Avengers after the battles in New York (Avengers), Washington DC (Captain America Winter Soldier), Sokovia (Avengers Age of Ultron) and now Africa. Secretary of State Ross (William Hurt) tells the Avengers they have to agree to supervision by the United Nations to continue policing the planet. This is accepted by Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and the military minded Rhodey aka War Machine (Don Cheadle), but Cap and Falcon think that they still know what is best for the heroes.